Despite what D'Antoni says, though, health has to be the driving force behind Nash's continued absence. Nerve issues have limited him to just 10 games this season, and 60 over the last two.

Nash, if healthy, should also be part of the talent evaluation D'Antoni references. While on the wrong side of 40, he is under contract for $9.7 million next season. If he was healthy enough to play, the Lakers need him to play, if only to see how much he has left.

For whatever it's worth, Nash wouldn't rule out a return this year, according to the Los Angeles Daily News' Mark Medina:

Steve Nash on prospects of returning: "We’ll see. I couldn’t really make a prediction. If I get a chance, it’ll be great."

Assuming Nash doesn't play this season, one has to imagine the Lakers explore using the stretch provision on him this summer. They're slated to have massive cap space over the offseason, and if Nash proves to be essentially dead weight, general manager Mitch Kupchak will want to increase Los Angeles' financial flexibility ahead of free agency.

At this point, even if Nash were to return, there's little he can do to sway Los Angeles' decision. The Lakers have only 23 games remaining, which is hardly enough time for Nash to reverse the stigma that's been dogging him since last season.

In the first episode of Grantland's The Finish Line, which details Nash's latest comeback attempt, the point guard openly lamented his swift and unforgiving decline.

As Nash, himself, puts it in that episode:

Every athlete, when they lose their skill, they lose a big part of themselves, a part that they’ve built their life around, that has been a huge part of their purpose, their self esteem, identity. So when the skill, or ability goes, it’s like there’s been a death.

Coming to grips with regression and the inevitable end is difficult for a floor general who was once extolled for his durability and outright defiance of Father Time.